People that don't want to work?

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Last 3 months I've worked all the hours...done my back in so now forced to take it a bit easier!

When there is work I do it....when there isn't work I'm down the garage.

Can't remember the last time I spent a day sitting around doing nothing!

 

[Melvyn Best]

years ago i worked with a woman who's son was a herion addict, he occasionally tried to get clean but as an addict was subject to extra benefits, rent paid, bills paid etc and remember talking to her about him trying to clean up and get work, problem was nowhere paid anywhere near what he'd need to earn to match his current 'income' once rent and bills etc came into it, so he was financially considerably better off as a heroin addict. He died of an overdose in the end, as . put it he couldn't afford to work.

That about sums up one of my younger brothers, he left school probably 45 years ago and has maybe “worked” for 4 or 5 of those years before he became a father of 3 . Since then he hasn’t worked . He has spent time as a guest of HRM for dealing , his wife , who is a really nice woman has divorced him , his kids have nothing to do with him , myself I haven’t seen him since early 2014, I presume he is still alive. .?
All of my other brothers have worked hard all of their lives so you can’t really say it runs in the family.

 

[Seadog]

But... The older I get - I am sort getting a social conscience. At one time - I would have just said people who did not work were doley scroungers. Taking from society and not giving back. The default responce I see from replies above.

I now think - there are people who are too ill, too mentaly sick or too fat to work. Or sadly too thick to work. Not everybody is as outgoing as me. Some people if you gave them a good job they could not do it.

While it seems unfair to those that work hard - what else are you gonna do with these people - let them starve?

This is only gonna get worse with technology taking low skilled jobs away.

This problem in decades to come is gonna get worse. Get used to it...

I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[Robbie260]

I have worked hard all my life.

I have brought up three kids - my eldest is Policeman - then I have Social Worker - my youngest works in a shop.

My wife still works 16 hrs a week and she is in her early 60's.

We have worked hard and paid our way all our lives.


But... The older I get - I am sort getting a social conscience. At one time - I would have just said people who did not work were doley scroungers. Taking from society and not giving back. The default responce I see from replies above.

I now think - there are people who are too ill, too mentaly sick or too fat to work. Or sadly too thick to work. Not everybody is as outgoing as me. Some people if you gave them a good job they could not do it.

While it seems unfair to those that work hard - what else are you gonna do with these people - let them starve?

This is only gonna get worse with technology taking low skilled jobs away.

This problem in decades to come is gonna get worse. Get used to it...

Id agree with that. Esspecially that the problem is only going to get worse. Everyone is going on about how fantastic the automated future will be. Nobody seems to have twiged yet even big companies where are people going to earn the money to pay for stuff from. Not everyone has the brain power to fix machinery, and whats going to happen to all the drivers, factory workers etc etc etc probably end up on the doll with no prospects or hope.

 

[Munkul]

I had a contractor in last week, bitchin' about the rest of his workforce...

"they furloughed everyone except me, since as I'm the chargehand, they decided they'd put me in charge of mobile repairs... It's not fair, they get to sit on their backsides for months, and I've had no holiday or anything!"

I'm busy thinking, If I were you I'd be grateful to a) have a job for full pay, and b) not be bored sitting at home doing nothing!

 

[Robbie260]

I had a contractor in last week, bitchin' about the rest of his workforce...

"they furloughed everyone except me, since as I'm the chargehand, they decided they'd put me in charge of mobile repairs... It's not fair, they get to sit on their backsides for months, and I've had no holiday or anything!"

I'm busy thinking, If I were you I'd be grateful to a) have a job for full pay, and b) not be bored sitting at home doing nothing!

Yeah seen a lot of that while i was stuck away on ship due to covid. Its in lots of ways better to be at work than stuck at home doing nothing.

 

[julianf]

There's a lot of Daily Mail style contempt at the unemployed, and, obviously, not all will be without fault, but...

With just 26 people holding 50% of the world's wealth, if you're thinking your life isn't how you want it to be, is that really going to be the fault of the dolie down the road?

Wealth creators, trickle down and all that? We saw in 2008 how the so-called "trickle down" was a nonsense. The wholesale support of the asset markets through QE pushed the disparity of wealth at an alarming rate, and the same thing will happen with this crisis.

Again, if you want to focus displeasure, sure, feel resentful at the chap down the road who does not get out of bed until 10am...

But, really, he has very little control over your life.

 

[the snooper]

I have worked hard all my life.

I have brought up three kids - my eldest is Policeman - then I have Social Worker - my youngest works in a shop.

My wife still works 16 hrs a week and she is in her early 60's.

We have worked hard and paid our way all our lives.


But... The older I get - I am sort getting a social conscience. At one time - I would have just said people who did not work were doley scroungers. Taking from society and not giving back. The default responce I see from replies above.

I now think - there are people who are too ill, too mentaly sick or too fat to work. Or sadly too thick to work. Not everybody is as outgoing as me. Some people if you gave them a good job they could not do it.

While it seems unfair to those that work hard - what else are you gonna do with these people - let them starve?

This is only gonna get worse with technology taking low skilled jobs away.

This problem in decades to come is gonna get worse. Get used to it...

You're right, I apply the same thoughts when someone asks me to repair something, I think it's simple, you only need to do this or that, why can't you do it, it's hard to make sense of why people can't do what you find simple to do, in the end you just have to accept that there are people aren't upto certain things

 

[premmington]

There's a lot of Daily Mail style contempt at the unemployed, and, obviously, not all will be without fault, but...

With just 26 people holding 50% of the world's wealth, if you're thinking your life isn't how you want it to be, is that really going to be the fault of the dolie down the road?

Wealth creators, trickle down and all that? We saw in 2008 how the so-called "trickle down" was a nonsense. The wholesale support of the asset markets through QE pushed the disparity of wealth at an alarming rate, and the same thing will happen with this crisis.

Again, if you want to focus displeasure, sure, feel resentful at the chap down the road who does not get out of bed until 10am...

But, really, he has very little control over your life.

The gap between the rich and poor is getting bigger for sure...


Maybe if everyone aimed there displeasure at the banks not the unemployed the world would be a better place?

What do I know - I am just a "fat middle aged mechanic"!

 

[the snooper]

If I ever came into enough cash to sack work off like most people I'd certainly not be working, my moto, work to live, not live to work

 

[Other Daniel]

years ago i worked with a woman who's son was a herion addict, he occasionally tried to get clean but as an addict was subject to extra benefits, rent paid, bills paid etc and remember talking to her about him trying to clean up and get work, problem was nowhere paid anywhere near what he'd need to earn to match his current 'income' once rent and bills etc came into it, so he was financially considerably better off as a heroin addict. He died of an overdose in the end, as . put it he couldn't afford to work.

personally I've never been on benefits and have worked all my life, however in the UK I think many people are just better off on benefits than they would be working, I remember me and the missus having 3 jobs between us just to keep up with being skint. i remember one christmas as we were scraping together some money for the kids gifts her mate who'd never worked a day in her life posted a pic of a massive pile of gifts for her kids in front of the huge flat screen TV she had and I just thought who is the mug here?? me for working for a living? shortly afterwards moved to Australia where we are much better off and that was quite a large reason for it, being on benefits shouldn't be a lifetime career choice that pays better than working for a living but with wages in many places being so low, unfortunately it is.

The issue isn't unique to the UK. Believe me

 

[jimbo84]

Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life again.

Unfortunately not possible for most people and they want to be able to give up work and/or get out of the rat race as soon as possible. I've been there and the dread of having to go back in the next day ruining your evenings and weekends isn't nice.

Worked since I was 16 and some years ago had to take a step back from work for health reasons. I still work now but on my terms and choose to earn less money to have a better quality of life/health.

One advantage of this virus and lockdown I think is that people have realised that sitting in traffic in a car on a motorway for hours each way or being rammed onto a train, bus or tube, working for 6 days a week to have one day off and a few days a year holiday without any great retirement prospects really isn't good for anybody's health or well being.

There are troubled work times ahead for many but equally there is a new way of working coming/here and it's a long time overdue I say.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

I remember all the moaning about the wealth not trickling down from the city of London to ordinary folk.

Covid has really underlined that those ordinary folk are totally reliant on the city workers that they hate so much.

It's been quite the wake up call me thinks...same for relying on congestion charges to fund services!

Big panic in London is that people will just work from home and not go back to offices!

 

[ukracer]

One thing people seem to have missed is that a lot of people cant afford to work, one neighbours wife is willing to work but all her wages are swallowed up in childcare so what's the point as she is worse off, she has to have a car for work and other expenses she wouldn't have if she didn't work and would actually be better off financially. During lockdown I taught her some basic gardening and she really took to it and has actually grown a lot of basics for little effort and loves her fresh salad crops grown in her own tubs and troughs recycled from various sources. She has planted most of her winter crops and should have fresh veg through the winter and all without chemical sprays and feeds, she is now looking at life from a slightly different perpective now.

Perhaps you could give the rest of us tips. My salad attempts were terrible. Might be worth a thread on its own.

 

[ukracer]

I remember all the moaning about the wealth not trickling down from the city of London to ordinary folk.

Covid has really underlined that those ordinary folk are totally reliant on the city workers that they hate so much.

It's been quite the wake up call me thinks...same for relying on congestion charges to fund services!

Big panic in London is that people will just work from home and not go back to offices!

If that's the case .......how about the rest of the country?

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

London accounts for something crazy like 25% of UK GDP...as we aren't all driving Porsches and Bentleys I suspect that wealth must be going somewhere?

If you drive around London it's a dump...aside from the tourist bits....when I visit the north most town centres are a lot better than my local centre where I live in London.

 

[julianf]

Covid has really underlined that those ordinary folk are totally reliant on the city workers that they hate so much.

Strange, I thought it was completely the opposite?

I mean I feel that the person who drove the van to deliver my food helped me out quite a bit. As did the person who packed it, grew it, etc. etc.

I was glad of the people working in the local shop. I was glad of the people at the local doctor's surgery.

I guess the city bond market hotted up a bit due to yet more government borrowing, but, personally, I would see the constant reliance on government debt (pre covid just as much as post) as an abject failure of the current system.

 

[julianf]

London accounts for something crazy like 25% of UK GDP....

Financial services industry.

America - a country right up there on the wealth scale, and yet people die, in numbers, because they can not afford insulin.

Just looking at GDP is really not a good indicator of anything really.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

At some point the world will wake up and realise that exchanging real resources for pieces of paper is basically nuts.

At the rate we are printing money I think there is quite a bout of inflation on its way.

I completely agree...London is a dump...but when I speak to mates in the north they don't value what they have....everyone thinks someone else's has it easier, better etc.

 

[TechnicAl]

I have worked hard all my life.

I have brought up three kids - my eldest is Policeman - then I have Social Worker - my youngest works in a shop.

My wife still works 16 hrs a week and she is in her early 60's.

We have worked hard and paid our way all our lives.


But... The older I get - I am sort getting a social conscience. At one time - I would have just said people who did not work were doley scroungers. Taking from society and not giving back. The default responce I see from replies above.

I now think - there are people who are too ill, too mentaly sick or too fat to work. Or sadly too thick to work. Not everybody is as outgoing as me. Some people if you gave them a good job they could not do it.

While it seems unfair to those that work hard - what else are you gonna do with these people - let them starve?

This is only gonna get worse with technology taking low skilled jobs away.

This problem in decades to come is gonna get worse. Get used to it...

Im probably the same. I think you have seen more and become aware that theres always 2 sides to every story. Dont know about you but these sort of issues dont annoy me anymore, so I can see them for what they are